


Won't Forget

by keiths



Category: Voltron Force, Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: KeithxLance, M/M, klance, klancefic, lancexkeith, royaltyau
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 17:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7765996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keiths/pseuds/keiths
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>ROYALTY AU:::: Lance is forced into an arranged marriage with a girl that he has no feelings for whatsoever, but her brother, Keith Gyeong, catches his attention, and Lance realizes he's doomed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Won't Forget

**Author's Note:**

> \- bro its 3am the end sucks ass but yknow  
> -some references to dirty laundry!!!!
> 
> *update: ik people wanted a 2nd part to this & tbh so did i but really after some thought (& attempts at a 2nd chapter) i rly think that i should leave this as a oneshot. the ending was initially written to wrap the whole thing up, i didnt plan for multiple chapters rip ..but im working on a different klance fic that WILL have multiple chapters so stay tuned ^^;

Lance has never faked any kind of reaction in his life. If he disliked something, he made sure to word it and make it remarkably clear. If something genuinely satisfied him, he was always quick to radiate with positivity and gratitude, his smile never once wavering with anything remotely phony. He’s always been an honest guy, since it’s a constructive quality that a prince should practice from birth, whether he liked it or not. Lance has been told countless times to avoid complaining, be respectful, and carry out his duties as prince without hesitation.

  


But God, did he regret ever agreeing to such terms.  


As he sits next to his arranged marriage partner, he forces himself to pull a series of plastic smiles, yet inside he feels like disappearing from his seat. It isn’t because he dislikes the girl he’s been assigned to, Ari’s beautiful with a nice personality and everything a guy would love in a wife, but Lance didn’t even try to convince himself that he actually feels that way about her. He’s met Ari before, but their conversations were mostly strained and they always left Lance feeling awkward and prickly. Truth be told, he barely knows a thing about her. But these things didn’t matter, and Lance realizes this more and more as he studies the proud faces that his parents gave him from across the table, clearly pleased with how well their son is seemingly getting along with his future wife. Along with how accepting their son seems to be despite going through with an arranged marriage, of all things.  


“You two look just like a couple, already.” Ari’s mother hummed, pulling Lance from his thoughts.  


Puzzled, Lance glances downwards and finds that Ari had moved to lace her fingers with his above the table. Her hand feels weird in his, as if it were never meant to be there.  


His gaze eventually traveled up to meet with Ari’s worried eyes, her eyebrows creased with concern, “Lance, are you okay?”  


Noticing that both families at the table were now looking at them, Lance swallows hard and grins as big as he could, “What? Why wouldn’t I be! I’m marrying the most gorgeous girl in the world!” He tightens his hold on her hand visibly, trying his best to look as convincing as possible.  


Amused chuckles came in response from the rest, and as Lance looks into the flustered eyes of the oblivious girl next to him, he sees just how fucked up this whole situation really is. At first, Lance had believed that Ari must be feeling as awkward as he does while being forced into an arranged marriage with someone that she’s barely just gotten off of stranger-terms with. But Lance could tell. Ari has feelings for him, and he has none to return.  


“I’m glad you feel that way, Lance.” He perked up at the sound of his mother’s voice, his shoulders tensing as he looked towards her, “Because the marriage ceremony is in two weeks time, and the more you like each other, the better.”  


Lance’s plastic grin faltered a little, “Of course.”  


As the adults begin conversing again, mostly about the marriage, Lance takes the time to get an actual look at the rest of Ari’s family. Her parents are the rulers of a country fairly far from here, so they both certainly look it with their ebony locks combed neatly to frame their pale faces, along with golden crowns that rest on top of their heads. Ari’s ten year old sister is sitting next to them, completely engrossed in the plate of food in front of her. Lance can’t help but notice how similar she looks to Ari herself, her hair pulled back in two clean braids that cascade down her shoulders.  


Lance’s eyes wandered further down the table, finally getting a look at Ari’s brother. He had been so reserved when Lance had first introduced himself that he had almost forgotten his name, but he made sure to remember. Keith Gyeong. So far, he’s the only one at the table that hasn’t said a word, his nimble fingers loosely picking at the plate of food in front of him as he simply listens to the conversation. His black hair slightly curtains over his dark purple orbs, casting a faint shadow over his clean features. He’s been frowning throughout the dinner, but Lance simply guesses that he’s feeling homesick judging by how far his family had traveled to come here. Lance’s heart jerks in his chest when Keith looks up, locking eyes with him as if he had felt him staring. Lance quickly transfers his gaze back to Ari, suddenly feeling clammy.  


_I guess the ‘welcoming personality’ gene doesn’t run in the family._  


The rest of the dinner goes smoothly, full of smiles and a flustered Ari receiving empty flirts from a bluffing Lance. It’s absolutely unbearable.  


Eventually, Ari makes a light compliment about the appearance of their castle, and of course it leads to Lance’s mother suggesting that she and Keith get a tour of the place by Lance himself. Ari’s younger sister decides to stay behind, preferring to stay close to her parents without being around those ‘lovebirds’. Keith nodded nonchalantly, clearly not caring as long as he was able to stretch his legs.  


Sure enough, by the time the three leave the dining room, Ari grabs hold of Lance’s hand once again. He doesn’t resist, but another shiver of guilt courses through him as he tries not to focus on their interlocked hands. Lance isn’t able to glimpse what kind of look Keith pulls at this, but he’s sure that the male’s not so happy about being the third wheel. Lance isn’t happy at all by the situation either, so it would make two of them.  


The three of them start down the corridor towards the main room, their paces slow, “So, you came all the way here from across the Pacific? That’s pretty far!” Lance started, trying to break the ice atleast a little.  


Lance doesn’t admit that he had vaguely wanted Keith to answer the question, but he feels a tinge of something close to disappointment as Ari answers him first.  


“I know, right?” Ari beams, “But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t worth the travel.”  


Lance can only force out a faint chuckle, overwhelmed with the repetitive voices in his head that screamed: _You’re in an arranged marriage with a stranger you don’t have feelings for. You’re doomed, Lance Sanchez._  


“And you’re palace is beautiful, I was completely surprised by how big it is when we got here!” Ari added, leaning closer to Lance subtly as she looked towards her brother, “What do you think, Keith?”  


Lance looked over at the male curiously, studying his frustratingly unreadable features as he merely blinks along with a flat, “It’s nice.”  


They make their way past some rooms that Lance briefly educates the pair on, making sure to tell them about a few amusing stories that had occurred in some of the said rooms. He felt a little satisfied as Ari responded to his stories with genuine giggles, but Lance was more fixated on her brother, who didn’t seem to even listen to what they were talking about next to him. An unfamiliar feeling lingers in his gut at the fact that Keith was basically ignoring him, but he brushes it off and tries focusing on keeping the smile on Ari’s face.  


As Lance starts down the corridor that leads to the ballroom, Ari suddenly lets go of his hand. Confused yet vaguely relieved, Lance looks back towards her.  


“Where’s the bathroom?” She asks, tucking a strand of ebony hair behind her ear.  


Lance blinks, “Oh, it’s right down the hall!” He beams, raising a finger to gesture towards the referred direction, “Keith and I will be in the ballroom while we wait, I guess.”  


As Ari disappears down the corridor, Lance is left with only her antisocial brother, who obviously doesn’t like him for reasons unknown. Keith uncrosses his arms, his eyebrows raising slightly as he gazes at the slightly taller prince, waiting for the talkative male to say something.  


Lance’s mouth feels unusually dry as the pregnant silence hangs over them. He still feels stiff and sweaty, the same way he had felt whenever Ari held his hand or lingered closer to his side. Ari’s gone, why is he still feeling nervous?  


Keith finally speaks, his voice echoing off the walls of the palace, “I’m happy for you two. You and my sister, I mean.”  


Lance hadn’t been expecting that at all. Stunned, he blinks owlishly at the latter, eventually trying another smile as he sheepishly rubs the back of his neck, “Th-thanks, I thought you’d have some kind of beef with me for marrying your sister, so uh… that’s a relief!” He mentally curses himself for letting his voice crack, his ears reddening.  


The corners of Keith’s lips rise a little as if suggesting a smile, “Of course not. So, where’s the ballroom place you were talking about?”  


Having forgotten about the ballroom, Lance beams and leads him further down the hall to the relatively bold pair of doors at the end. He opens the door and flips on a few of the lights to illuminate the place before gesturing for Keith to follow him. The ballroom is by far Lance’s favorite place in the whole palace, its marbles floors holding so many sweet memories underneath the crystal ball that hung from the ceiling. It’s not the largest ballroom out there, but its appearance definitely makes up for its size. 

The crystal casts shafts of light across the shiny floor, giving it a glowing touch that made the room all the more prettier. Even Keith’s eyes widen a little upon stepping inside.  


“Pretty, right?” Lance asks, walking up behind Keith and lifting a finger towards the crystal ball above to call attention to it, “See that? Five hundred grand.”  


Keith looked at him in disbelief, “You’re kidding.”  


“Nope!” Lance chuckled, setting a hand on his hip as he eyed the other, “My family is full of perfectionists, so of course we wanted the best main feature for the ballroom. The best just happens to be the most pricey, obviously.”  


Keith raises an eyebrow, “Well, people that are filthy rich tend to be perfectionists.”  


Slightly frustrated with his bluntness, Lance shrugs loosely, “I guess. But a ballroom is one of the most important rooms of a palace, so it’s understandable, right?” He looks around, smiling to himself, “I have a lot of memories in here. Parties, food, dancing…” His first time learning how to slow dance is still a vivid memory in his mind, and he can’t help but word it, “ _Especially_ the dancing. I bet you do a lot of that at your palace ballroom, too?”  


Keith smiled guiltily, his eyes flickering elsewhere as he crosses his arms over his chest, “I don’t know how to dance.”  


Lance doesn’t believe his ears at first, “ _What?_ What kind of prince doesn’t know how to dance? Don’t tell me you don’t even know how to waltz.”  


Keith shakes his head, and Lance takes the fact that the male can’t dance more personally than needed. Lance had to learn how to dance at the age of ten, it being out of the ordinary for a king-to-be being unable to dance properly. When he had first learned how, he had grown to love dancing, and soon he had become an expert on all forms from salsa to rumba. Rumba had to be his favorite, since his hips were clearly built for it.  


“Unacceptable, Mr. Gyeong.” Lance shakes his head feebly, clicking his tongue with mock disappointment, “If you don’t know how to dance, you’re basically a pile of dead weight!”  


“Shut--” Keith thought better of his words towards the prince, “Stop.”  


Lance settles his chin in his hand, smiling mischievously at the latter. His playful side is definitely starting to be evident now that his fiance isn’t around, and he guesses he might as well take advantage of himself being in his prime. So he goes towards the music box.  


“What’re you doing?” Keith inquires, his eyebrows knitting together as he watched the prince fiddle with buttons of the remote, confusion rising onto his features.  


“Well, obviously,” Lance pressed his thumb on play, and Johann Strauss II - Blue Danube Waltz started emitting softly from the speakers, “I’m gonna teach your sorry ass how to dance.”  


Keith’s eyes go round, his face beginning to go void of color, “What? Seriously? No.”  


Lance turns and catches him by the waist before he could back out of it, chuckling as he feels the ebony-haired male flinch at the contact. Keith stiffens as Lance interlocks their right hands, his dark eyes swirling with resistance yet another emotion that Lance couldn’t read. He slightly closes the gap in between them, trying to keep a respectable amount of space to keep Keith from feeling uncomfortable.  


“C’mon, I’m trying to help you!” Lance pressed, looking at him hard whilst trying not to pay attention to how close their faces are at this point, “What’re you going to do when your future girl wants to slow dance with you, huh?”  


Keith sighs at this, his gaze exchanging towards the ground, “I guess you’re right. But still, this is really inappropria--hey! Lance, you’re messing up my clothes.”  


“Whoops, sorry.” Lance had wrapped a hand around Keith’s waist, but of course he couldn’t do so without clumsily pulling back on the fabric of his blazer, “I’ll probably be a little rusty, so bear with me.”  


Finally, when they had gotten situated in their positions for the waltz, Lance instructed Keith how to move his feet. Keith was absolutely horrible at first, his eyes glued down on the space in between them as a faint red hue invaded his ears. Lance hums along with the music, stopping every now and then to give Keith more pointers on what to do with his feet and such, and soon the male had surprisingly gotten the hang of it.  


_Damn, he’s a quick learner._  


Now that the two had started getting a rhythm going, Lance can let his shoulders relax and focus on other things rather than trying to avoid the threat of Keith stepping on his shoes. Instead, he focuses on the way their chests brush with each step, and how warm Keith’s right hand feels in his. The only thing that would make this better and less awkward is if Keith actually looked at him, not the floor underneath them. But then again, his sister’s future husband is waltzing with him in an empty ballroom, so of course there’s going to be a lack of eye-contact.  


“You’re really getting the hang of it!” Lance comments, moving swiftly as they change course once again, “I guess your future girl has nothing to worry about, after all.”  


Keith scowls, finally glaring up at him through his curtain of black hair, “You’re just saying that.”  


More bluntness. Lance’s eyebrow twitches, “No, really! The fact that you picked this up so easily is kinda annoying me, since it took me a couple hours to get the waltz down.”  


Keith’s shoulders shifted, as if he were trying to suppress a laugh, “Well that’s probably because you were learning with someone you knew. And someone that was probably not a guy.”  


Lance furrowed his eyebrows, “Ha, ha, very funny.” He mumbled, sarcasm laced in his tone as he senses the short two minute span of the song come to a close.  


He almost doesn’t want the song to end. Even though this whole thing is awkward as hell, something about Keith made him want to keep going, made him want to stay this close to him. It’s a weird feeling that has his stomach twist with discomfort. He hadn’t felt that way when he and Ari had held hands; hell, he rarely felt it around anyone.  


Lance subconsciously tightened his hold on Keith’s hand, as if doing so would somehow freeze the moment forever. His heart begins to race as the song comes to an end, and he isn’t sure why. Even after the final note, they stay still with their hands linked and Lance’s hand around the prince’s waist.  


Keith had finally lifted his face to look at him, his eyes unreadable yet a soft depth resided inside of them, and it sent a warm feeling through Lance’s chest as he gazed back. He almost completely forgot about the world around them, about Ari, about his parents, about everything except the prince in front of him. He doesn’t even notice his face leaning forward carefully, yet he notices as Keith does the same. Then it hits him. He’s trying to kiss Keith Gyeong.  


The gap between them had almost been completely nonexistent, until a voice broke through the air and pulled Lance out of his trance right away. Ari’s voice.  


“I’m back, Lance!”  


Lance immediately pushed himself away from Keith, hearing the other’s breath hitch with confusion at the loss of contact, until he realizes why he had done so in the first place. His gaze shoots towards the door as Ari emerges into the ballroom, smiling as soon as her eyes landed on Lance.  


“Sorry for taking so long.” She beamed apologetically as she approached them, completely oblivious of what she had just interrupted, “I hope it wasn’t _completely_ horrible while having to be alone with my brother.”  


Keith would have usually countered her remark with a witty insult, but he barely listens to her talk as he keeps his flushed face turned away from the two, his hand raised to his mouth as he nervously bit down on his nail. Lance glanced towards him, a mixture of worry and disappointment and desire lingering in his gut.  


_We almost kissed. God, we could’ve kissed…_  


“Lance?”  


Lance jumps, trying to hide the discomfort in his eyes as he flashes her a quick smile, “Whoops, sorry, it’s easy to get, uh, distracted in a place like this, right?” He prays to God that his voice isn’t coming out as shaky as he feels, “Your brother doesn’t seem all that bad, either!” He raises his voice a little, wanting Keith to hear him as to somehow let him know that Lance had enjoyed spending time with him, probably more than he should have.  


“Well, that’s good.” Ari beams as she reaches out to hold his hand, “We should go back to our families now, they’re probably worried that we got lost or something.”  


Lance can only nod, too many thoughts racing through his head to even think of a response to her words. They both look towards Keith, who only keeps his eyes fixated on the floor, biting his lip miserably.  


Lance feels his heart drop. _He probably hates me now._  


He lets her begin to pull him out of the ballroom doors, his face still flushing as he remembers the events that had just happened just minutes before. He almost kissed Ari’s brother. Ari almost saw _them kiss._  


And as Ari holds onto his hand, Lance can only think back to when he had intertwined his own fingers with Keith’s. The way they moved and felt together had been so natural, making the fingers replacing the male’s feel empty and meaningless. Why can’t he feel the same way with Ari? The one he’s going to actually _marry?_  


The only option that he has now is to forget about it. He can’t possibly disobey his parents’ wishes to chase after a guy he just met, let alone his fiance’s brother. But as the three of them emerge into the dining room once more, and both families exaggerate over how good of a couple Lance and Ari would become, and how the marriage is going to be beneficial for the both of them, along with the loving glance that Ari directs towards him, Lance finally comes to terms with it. It’s impossible for him to forget about Keith.  


Among the pestering siblings, Lance is finally able to find Keith among them. And as they lock eyes, a crimson shade crosses both of their cheeks simultaneously, and Keith smiles.  


And Lance doesn’t want to forget.


End file.
